The Royal Ascot has begun! I’m sure we’ll have some good royal photos from Royal Ascot in the days to come. But for now, these photos of Damian Lewis and his wife Helen McCrory are fresh off the presses. I’m assuming Damien’s facial hair look is for a role, because he still looks like he’s in costume. He looks like he’s playing turn-of-the-century Sherlock Holmes: Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Missing Sexual Attraction.

I don’t cover Damien that much because I tend to think people aren’t really intensely interested in him, especially now that he’s left Homeland (sidenote: I haven’t watched Homeland since he left). Damien just did the miniseries Wolf Hall, which I tried to watch but got really bored. He will soon be filming To Appomattox, where he plays General Sherman. Damien works consistently and he actually is a wonderful, interesting actor. Which makes the next story a little bit weird. British bookies now believe that Damien is one of the “favorites” to take over as James Bond. Seriously.

Bookmakers have slashed odds on Damien Lewis becoming the next James Bond after a flurry of large bets on the Homeland star. William Hill now has Lewis as short as 6/4 to follow Daniel Craig as 007 amid speculation that forthcoming movie Spectre could be the 47-year-old’s final stint as the suave British spy. Lewis is now the favourite for the role ahead of Idris Elba, 42 (5/2), Tom Hardy, 37 (4/1), Henry Cavill, 32 (5/1) and Michael Fassbender, 38 (7/1).

Craig is thought to be contracted for at least one more movie after Spectre, but might choose to go out on a high if Sam Mendes’ return to the director’s chair proves as successful as his last outing, the $1bn Skyfall. The Oscar-winning British film-maker’s second 007 movie is widely predicted to be one of the year’s biggest releases.

Hackney-born Elba, best known for turns in The Wire and BBC crime drama Luther, was the previous frontrunner to play Bond. But he appeared to rule himself out in April, telling an audience at London’s British Film Institute that he had given up on getting the call from 007 production company Eon. “If there was ever any chance of me getting Bond, it’s gone,” said Elba, further suggesting the longstanding rumour was “really starting to eat itself”.

[From The Guardian]

If Daniel Craig steps down after Spectre – and that’s a big IF, considering he threatened to do the same after Skyfall – then this speculation hasn’t even started! People tend to forget that Daniel’s casting sort of came out of nowhere and that the producers will likely go with an unexpected choice to replace Craig. Damien would be “unexpected” in that his name is rarely part of any serious discussion up until this moment. Usually the conversation is about Idris Elba. Or Chiwetel Ejiofor. I’m just throwing that name out there! Chiwetel would be an amazing Bond.

Photos courtesy of WENN.